Landlord-Tenant FAQ

Questions & Answers about
Landlord Liability for Mould Problems

Email your UK mould questions to mould expert Phillip Fry at envirodangers@yahoo.com for his FREE answer and help.

[June 15, 2003]

Q. Are you aware of any state or environmental laws that require office buildings to be mould free? We have recently moved back into our downtown office after the tornadoes that came thru Jackson, TN. last month.

A. There are no federal or state environmental laws that require an office building, home, or any other building to be mould-free. Landlords do often have a state law legal obligation to provide habitable housing to their tenants. Your attorney can probably make a similar argument as to office buildings, that the landlord owes an obligation to provide safe environmentally-safe office space to tenants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and most state EPA agencies consider serious mould infestation in the work place to be an EPA health and safety violation by an employer.

[June 12, 2003]
Q. My family and I have been renting a 3 bedroom townhome/apartment for about 5 months now When we first moved in, I noticed that there was a foul, moldy odor under the kitchen cabinets, primarily where the sink is. Sometimes the smell is so strong, that you can smell it upon entering the kitchen/dining room area. The landlord and I looked at it upon moving in, and she did say that the pipes had been leaking previously, and that she had someone to look at it before to fix the problem. We noticed that the pipes underneath still leaked. When I looked closely under the cabinets, I saw patches of black spots closely together, that looked like mould. We contacted the landlord again several months later, and she sent someone out. He then replaced a rubber ring under the sink, however said that he could do nothing about the mould, except to put lime on it!!??? I have become so annoyed with the smell and the problem, that I don't even want to go into my kitchen anymore. I have just started looking up information on black mould on the internet, and I am alarmed by what I am finding out! I did not know that this could be potentially dangerous to my family and I. My question is, does the mould that I have described to you sound like toxic black mould, and if so, what should we do about this problem, and our landlords non-caring attitude about it?

A. Take a sample of the visible mould using the Scotch tape lift tape sampling technique explained on Mold Mart and send it to our mould laboratory for mould analysis and mould identification. You can also use mould test kits to mould test your home. You are very wise to be concerned about possible health damage to your family. Slow, continual leaks like under your kitchen seak are perfect conditions to grow the most dangerous of all moulds, Stachybotrys, which can destroy the brains of your family members. Even if the mould is not Stachy, any mould in elevated levels indoors can cause health problems according the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Most landlords will not voluntarily spend the funds required for effective mould inspection, mould testing, and mould remediation. After you get back mould test results that document the mould health problem your family is facing in the apartment, you may have to hire an environmental attorney to persuade your landlord to carry out the landlord obligation to provide habitable housing for tenants. Read mould expert Philllip Fry's in depth ebook Mold Legal Guide. Make sure your landlord does the mould removal properly and safely by learning all of the steps required for effective mould remediation at: Mould Removal. If you cannot get your landlord to take care of the problem properly, you may need to move as soon as possible to a mould safe place for your family.

[March 15, 2003]

Q. In our building in West Hollywood, we all have mould in our apartments (bathroom, carpet, kitchen, etc...). I have been living there for 4 years and I keep cleaning but 3 days later it comes back. I didn't know anything about mould toxicity until my neighbor gave me some lecture. I just noticed that we all have (my daughter , my boyfriend and I) the symptoms associated with mould contamination. My daughter is always sick. She coughs a lot, she gets ear infection, congested nose, nausea, headaches etc... My boyfriend is getting more and more asthma attacks and besides all the above symptoms myself I have my eyes always watery and a blurred vision. I am getting worried and even if I clean which takes me approximately 5 hours of strenuous work, it keeps coming back. I keep calling the maintenance because the wall of the bathroom keeps crumbling because of a leak and every time, they just plaster the wall. One week later, the water stain reappears on the wall and slowly starts to crumble. Lately, we have an unbearable smell coming from the patio I think it is a broken pipe. I would like to know if the landlord is responsible for the decontamination of his building because I heard it was expensive.

A. Under most states' laws, residential landlords owe a duty to their tenants to provide habitable housing. Living in mould infestation is certainly not living in habitable housing. You can call your local city building inspector and ask him or her to check out your apartment for building code violations like mould infestation. You can also hire a mould lawyer to demand of your landlord immediate professional and safe mould remediation. Read mould expert Phillip Fry's in depth ebook Mold Legal Guide. You can also do your own mould testing with do it yourself mould test kits to document the existence of a mould contamination problem to help either the building inspector or your lawyer to take action against the landlord. Because most landlords will not honor their duty to provide habitable housing when there is mould present in the apartment, your safest course of action to protect your family's health is to move out immediately to a mould safe place to live while the building inspector and/or lawyer go after the landlord. If the apartment is mould remediated, you would have to move anyway because you cannot safely be in the apartment while the mould is being removed. To learn what is required in effective mould remediation, please visit: Mould Removal.